Chapter XVII: Letter XV: Korusko, the 20th November, 1843.28

Our journey from the Faiûm, through Egypt, was necessarily very much hastened owing to the advanced season. We have, therefore, rarely remained longer at a place than was requisite for a hasty survey, and have chiefly confined ourselves, during the past three months, to keeping an exact register of what exists, and to increasing our important collection of impressions upon paper of the most interesting inscriptions.

On our rapid journey as far as Wadi Halfa, we have collected from three to four hundred impressions, or exact copies, of Greek inscriptions alone. They often confirm Letronne’s acute conjectures, but also not unfrequently correct the unavoidable mistakes of such a difficult work as his. In the inscription from which, without any foundation, it was proposed to settle the position of the town of Akoris, his conjecture, ΙΣΙΔΙ ΛΟΧΙΑΔΙ, is not verified: L’Hôte had read ΜΟΧΙΑΔΙ, but it is ΜΩΧΙΑΔΙ, and before ΕΡΩΕΩΣ, not ΕΡΕΕΩΣ.

The dedicatory inscription of the Temple of PSELCHIS (as it is given in the inscription, in accordance with Strabo, instead of Pselcis) is almost as long again as Letronne assumes it to be, and the first line does not end with ΚΛΕΟΠΑΤΡΑΣ, but with ΑΔΕΛΦΗΣ, so that we must probably restore it thus:

Ὑπὲρ βασιλέως Πτολεμαίου καὶ βασιλίσσης
Κλεοπάτρας τῆς ἀδελφῆς
Θεῶν Εὐεργετῶν.[29] ... [30]

At the end of the second line ΤΩΙΚΑΙ, therefore, is confirmed. The surname of Hermes, which follows in the third line, however, has been ΠΑΟΤΠΝΟΥΦΙ (ΔΙ) differing from the writing in other later inscriptions, where he is called ΠΑΥΤΝΟΥΦΙΣ. The same surname is also not unfrequently found in hieroglyphics, and then sounds _Tut en Pnubs_, that is to say, _Thoth_ of, or Lord of Πνούψ, a town, the site of which is still uncertain. I have already met with this Thoth in temples of earlier date, where he frequently appears beside the _Thoth_ of _Schmun_, i. e. _Hermopolis Magna_. In the popular language it was called _Pet-Pnubs_; from this, it became _Paot-Pnuphis_.

The interesting problem about the owner of the name, Εὐπάτωρ, which Letronne endeavours to solve in a new manner, by means of the inscriptions on the obelisk of Philæ, appears to be decided by the hieroglyphic inscriptions, where the same circumstances recur, but lead to other conjectures.[31] I have found several very perfect series of the Ptolemies, the longest down to Neos Dionysos, and his consort Cleopatra, who, according to the hieroglyphic inscriptions, was surnamed, by the Egyptians, TRYPHÆNA.[32] A fact worthy of consideration is connected with this, namely, that in this _Egyptian_ list of the Ptolemies, the first king is never Ptolemy Soter I., but PHILADELPHUS. In Qurna, where Euergetes II. worships his predecessors, not alone Philometor, the brother of Euergetes is wanting, which is easily explained, but also Soter I., and Rosellini is mistaken when he regards the king who is worshipped under the title of Philadelphus, about whom Champollion was still doubtful, as Soter I. instead of Euergetes I. It appears that the son of Lagus, although he assumed the title of _king_ from the year 305, was yet not acknowledged as such by the Egyptians, as his shields do not appear on a single monument which was erected by him. So much the more do I rejoice that I have nevertheless found his name mentioned once, in an inscription of Philadelphus, as the father of Arsinoë II. But here, we must observe, Soter has, indeed, the royal ring round his name, and also a peculiar Throne-shield name, but quite contrary to the usual Egyptian custom, no king’s title stands before either of the shields, although his daughter is called “royal daughter” and “royal lady.”[33]

It is astonishing how little Champollion seems to have attended to the monuments of the Old Monarchy. During his whole journey through Central Egypt, as far as Dendera, he only found the rock-tombs of Benihassan worthy of notice, and these also, he considered to be works of the 16th and 17th Dynasties, therefore belonging to the New Monarchy. He also mentions Zauiet el Meitîn and Siut, but hardly notices them.

So little has been said by others, besides, on most of the monuments of Central Egypt, that almost everything that we here found was new to me. I, therefore, was not a little astonished when we discovered in ZAUIET EL MEITÎN a series of nineteen rock-tombs, all of them bearing inscriptions, which informed us who were their inhabitants, and belonging to the old time of the 6th Dynasty, therefore extending almost to the period of the great Pyramids. Five among them contain, more than once, the Shield of Makrobioten Apappus Pepi, who is said to have lived to the age of a hundred and six years, and to have reigned a hundred years; in another, Cheops is mentioned. Apart from these there is also a single grave from the period of Ramses.

In BENIHASSAN, I have had a complete drawing made of an entire rock-tomb; it is to give a specimen of the magnificent style of architecture and artistic skill, from the second flourishing period of the Old Monarchy, during the powerful 12th Dynasty.[34] I think it will excite some attention among the Egyptologists, when they shortly learn from Bunsen’s work, why I make a division in the tablet of Abydos, and why I ventured to transfer SESURTESEN and AMENEMHA, these well-known Pharaohs of Heliopolis, the Faiûm, Benihassan, Thebes, and as far as Wadi Halfa, from the New, to the Old Monarchy. It must have been a brilliant period in Egypt at that time, which these magnificent halls for the dead alone testify. At the same time, among the rich representations on the walls, which exhibit a high standard of the peaceful arts, as well as the refined luxury of the great at that period, it is interesting even then to meet with the prognostics of that great adverse destiny, which brought Egypt for several centuries under the power of her northern enemies. Gladiatorial games, which form a characteristic representation of frequent recurrence, in many tombs occupy entire walls, by which we may conclude they were extensively practised at that period, but afterwards almost disappeared. Among these we frequently find amidst the red or dark-brown people of the Egyptian race, and of those races dwelling more to the south, a very light-coloured people, standing singly or in small divisions, who have usually a different costume, and most of them have the hair of the head and beard red, and have blue eyes. They also sometimes appear among the domestics of persons of rank, and are manifestly of northern, probably of Semetic, origin. We find victories of the kings over the Ethiopians and Negroes mentioned on the monuments of that period; therefore it is not surprising to see black slaves and attendants. We learn nothing of wars against the northern neighbours, but it appears that the migrations of people from the north-east had already begun at that time, and that many emigrants sought a home in the fruitful land of Egypt, in exchange for service, or other useful employments.

I here allude particularly to the remarkable scene in the tomb of the royal relative NEHERA-SI-NUMHOTEP, the second tomb approaching from the north, which gives an animated idea of the entrance of Jacob with his family, and which might tempt us really to connect these circumstances, if Jacob had not come at a much later period, and if we were not compelled to acknowledge that such immigrations of single families could never have been a rare event. These, however, were the predecessors of the Hyksos, and assuredly in many respects paved the way for them. As it is only painted, and is still in very good preservation, I have traced through the whole representation, which is about eight feet long, and one and a half high. The royal scribe NEFRUHOTEP, who introduces the company before the high official, to whom the tomb belongs, hands him a sheet of papyrus. Upon this, the sixth year of King Sesurtesen II. is mentioned, when that family of thirty-seven persons came to Egypt. Their chief, and lord, was called ABSCHA, they themselves AAMU, a popular name, which we meet with again associated with the same light-coloured race; this, with three other races, is frequently represented in the royal tombs of the 19th Dynasty, and formed one of the four principal families of the human race known to the Egyptians. Champollion, when he was in Benihassan, regarded them as Greeks; he was not then aware of the extreme age of the monuments which were before him. Wilkinson considers them to be prisoners; this is contradicted by their appearing with weapons and lyres, with women, children, asses, and baggage. I view them as a migrating Hyksos family, who pray to be received into the blessed land, and whose descendants, perhaps, opened the gates of Egypt to the Semetic conquerors, allied to them by race.

The town, to which the rich rock-necropolis of Benihassan belonged, and which is named in the hieroglyphic inscriptions NUS, must have been of considerable size, and, doubtless, lay opposite, on the left bank of the Nile, where ancient mounds exist even at the present time, and are marked upon the French maps. That no more of this town of NUS was known in the geography of the Greeks and Romans than of many other towns of the Old Monarchy, ought not to surprise us, if we consider that the dominion of the Hyksos intervened, which lasted five hundred years. It is thought that the sudden fall of the Monarchy, and of this flourishing town, may be traced, even now, to have happened at the end of the 12th Dynasty by this circumstance—that only eleven of the numerous rock-tombs have inscriptions, and that among these, three alone were quite completed. Special roads of considerable width led to these last, ascending direct from the bank of the river, which near the steep upper part ended in steps cut out of the rock.

Benihassan, however, is not the only place where we became acquainted with the works of the 12th Dynasty. At BERSCHEH, a little to the south of the great plain, where the Emperor Hadrian, in honour of his favourite, who was there drowned, built the town of ANTINOE, with its splendid streets, even now partly passable, and encompassed with hundreds of columns, a narrow valley opens to the east, where we again found a series of splendidly executed rock-tombs of the 12th Dynasty, most of which, unfortunately, were mutilated by recent quarrying. In the tomb of Ki-si-Tuthotep there is a representation of the transport of the great Colossus, which has been already published by Rosellini, but without the accompanying inscriptions; from these we perceive that it was formed of _limestone_ (here, for the first time, I learned the hieroglyphic term for this), and that it was 13 Egyptian ells high, which is about 21 feet.[35] A series of still older tombs are hewn into the face of the rock on the southern side of the same valley, but with very few inscriptions; to judge by the style of the hieroglyphics, and the titles of the deceased, they belong to the 6th Dynasty.

Some hours farther to the south there is another group of tombs, which also belong to the 6th Dynasty; here, likewise, King Cheops is occasionally mentioned, whose name we several times met with before, in a hieratic inscription in Benihassan. We found tombs from the 6th Dynasty, though with few inscriptions, in two other places situated, between the valley EL AMARNA, which contains the very remarkable tomb-grottoes of King Bech-en-Aten, and Siut. Perring, the measurer of the Pyramids, a short time ago seriously endeavoured, in an essay, to maintain the strange opinion, which, however, I also met with while in Cairo, that the monuments of El Amarna were derived from the Hyksos; others, on account of their striking, though not inexplicable peculiarities, would even carry them back to the time before Menes. While still in Europe I had recognised the builder of these monuments, and some other allied kings, to be antagonistic kings of the 18th Dynasty.

Rock-tombs of vast size open on the side of the valley behind SIUT, in which, even from a distance, we recognised the imposing style of the 12th Dynasty. Here also, unfortunately, many of these splendid remains have been destroyed of late, as it was found more convenient to break away the walls and columns of the grottoes, than to hew out building stones from the rock itself.

I learned from Selîm Pascha, the Governor of Upper Egypt, who received us in a most friendly manner in Siut, that the Bedouins had a short time ago discovered some alabaster quarries in the eastern range of mountains, between two and three hours distant, the working of which had been committed to him by Mohammed Ali; and I heard from his dragoman, that in that place also there was an inscription on the rock. I therefore determined to start the following day, accompanied by the two Weidenbachs, our dragoman and Kawass, on this hot ride, on the Pascha’s horses, which he had sent to El Bosra for the purpose. We found there a little colony of eighteen labourers, thirty-one souls altogether, in the lonely, sultry, rocky defile, occupied in working the quarries. On the side of the rock, behind the tent of the overseer, the name and titles of the wife, so highly venerated by the Egyptians of the first Amasis, the head of the 18th Dynasty which expelled the Hyksos, were preserved in distinct, sharp-cut hieroglyphics, the remains of an inscription that had been formerly longer. These are the first alabaster quarries the age of which is proved by an inscription. Not far from that place there have been others also, which, however, had been worked out in ancient times. Above three hundred blocks have been already obtained from the one now re-opened during the last four months, the largest of which are eight feet long and two feet thick. The Pascha informed me, through his dragoman, that on our return I should find a slab, whose size and form I might myself determine, of the best quality in the quarry, and which I might accept, as a token of the pleasure he had derived from our visit. The alabaster quarries which have hitherto been discovered in this neighbourhood, are all between Berscheh and Gauâta; we might be inclined, therefore, to view El Bosra as the ancient Alabastron, if the passage in Ptolemy could be reconciled with it. At any rate, Alabastron has certainly nothing to do with the ruins in the valley of El Amarna, for which it has hitherto been taken, which does not either agree with the statement of Ptolemy, and with which it appears to have a totally different relation. The hieroglyphic name of these ruins frequently appears in the inscriptions.

In the rocky chain of GEBEL SELÎN there are some more very early tombs belonging to the Old Monarchy, probably to the 6th Dynasty, but with few inscriptions.

Opposite to old PANOPOLIS, or CHEMMIS, we climbed up to the remarkable rock-grotto of Pan (Chem). It was founded by another rival king of the 18th Dynasty, whose tomb we have since visited in Thebes. The holy name of the city frequently appears in the inscriptions here—“The Habitation of CHEM,” _i. e._ Panopolis. Whether the popular name Chemmis, now Echmim, originated from this, is perhaps doubtful. I have always found two different names for Siut, Dendera, Abydos, and other towns; the holy and the popular name. The first is taken from the chief god of the local temple; the second has nothing to do with this. My hieroglyphic geography increases nearly with every new monumental locality. In ABYDOS we came to the first of the larger temple structures. The last interesting tombs of the Old Monarchy we found at QASR E’ SAIAT; they go as far back as the 6th Dynasty. In DENDERA we visited the imposing Temple of Hathor, perhaps the best preserved in all Egypt.

We spent twelve overwhelming and astounding days in Thebes, which were scarcely sufficient to enable us to thread our way among the palaces, temples, and tombs, whose royal gigantic splendour fills this wide plain. We celebrated the birthday of our beloved king with a _feu de joie_, and waving of banners, with chorus songs and heartfelt toasts, which we pledged in a glass of genuine German Rhine wine, in the jewel of all the splendid buildings of Egypt—the palace of Ramses-Sesostris: it was erected by this greatest of the Pharaohs to “Ammon-Ra, the King of the Gods,” the tutelar patron of the royal city of Ammon, situated on a terrace of gentle elevation, calculated to command the wide plain on both sides of the majestic river, and was worthy of himself and of the god. I need scarcely say that on such an occasion we also thought of you with a full heart. When night came, we kindled a kettle of pitch above the outer entrance between the Pylones, on both sides of which our banners were planted, and then made a great fire flame up from the flat roof of the Pronaos (or vestibule), which exhibited the beautiful proportions of the hall of columns in splendid relief; for the first time since thousands of years we again restored this to its original destination as a festive hall—the saloon of “panegyrics.”[36] The two mighty Memnon Colossi, calmly reposing on their thrones, were also magically lighted up in the distance.

We have reserved all great undertakings for our return; but it will be difficult to select from the inexhaustible materials for our particular object, and with reference to what has been already communicated in other works. On the 10th of October we quitted Thebes. HERMONTHIS we saw in passing. The great hall of ESNEH was several years ago excavated down to the foundation by order of the Pascha, and afforded us a magnificent spectacle. We remained three days in EL KAB, the ancient EILEITHYIA. Still more wonderful than the different temples of this once mighty place, are its rock-tombs, most of which date from the commencement of the Egyptian War of Freedom against the Hyksos, and throw much light on the relations between the Dynasties of that period. Several distinguished persons, buried there, bear the strange title of Masculine Nurse of a Royal Prince, by the well-known group _mena_, and the determinative of the female breast, in the Coptic tongue expressed ⲙⲟⲡⲓ. The deceased is represented with the prince upon his lap.

The Temple of EDFU is also among those which are in best preservation; it was dedicated to Horus and to Hathor, the Egyptian Venus, who is here in one place called “The Queen of Men and Women.” Horus, as a child, is represented naked, as are all children on the monuments, and with his finger on his mouth. I had before explained the name of HARPOKRATES from it, which now I have found represented and written here complete, as HAR-PE-CHROTI, _i. e._ “Horus the child.” The Romans misunderstood the Egyptian gesture of the finger, and out of the child who cannot yet speak, they made the God of Silence who will not speak. The most interesting inscription, hitherto neither noticed nor mentioned by any one, is on the outer eastern wall of the temple built by Ptolemy Alexander I. It contains several dates, of the kings Darius, Nectanebus, and of the falsely so-called Amyrtæus, and refers to the landed estates which belonged to the temple. The intense heat of the day we spent there caused me to postpone, till our return, a closer examination, and taking the paper impression of this wall.[37] GEBEL SILSILIS is one of the places most abundant in historical inscriptions, which are chiefly connected with the vast workings of the sandstone quarries.

I was rejoiced to find a third _canon of the proportions_ of the human body, in OMBOS, differing very distinctly from both the older Egyptian canons which I had before met with in many examples. The second canon is closely connected with the first, and oldest, of the time of the Pyramids, from which it differs only in being brought to greater perfection, and being differently applied. The foot, as the unit, is the foundation of both, this taken six times, corresponded to the height of the body when upright; but it must be observed, from the sole of the foot, not as far as the crown of the head, but only to the top of the forehead. That portion from where the hair begins to grow on the upper part of the forehead, to the crown of the head, did not come into the calculation at all, and occupies sometimes three-quarters, sometimes the half, sometimes still less of a fresh square. The difference between the first and the second canon chiefly rests on the position of the knee. In the Ptolemaic canon, however, the division has itself been altered. The body was no longer divided into 18 parts, as in the second canon, but into 21¼ parts, to the top of the forehead, or into 23 parts, up to the crown of the head. This is the division which DIODORUS gives, in the last chapter of his first book. In the lower part of the body the proportions of the second and third canon remain the same; on the other hand, those of the upper part of the body are essentially altered, the contours become altogether more extravagant, and the previous beautiful simplicity and chasteness of the forms, in which consisted both its grand and peculiarly Egyptian character, yielded to the imperfect imitation of an uncomprehended foreign style of art. The proportion of the foot to the length of the body remains the same, but the foot is no longer placed for the basis as unit.

At ASSUAN we were obliged to change our boat, on account of the Cataracts, and for the first time for six months past, or longer, we had the home enjoyment of heavy rain, and a violent thunderstorm, which gathered on the farther side of the Cataracts, crossed with a mighty force the granite girdle, and then, amidst the most violent explosions, rolled down the valley as far as Cairo, and (as we have since heard) covered it with floods of water, such as had been scarcely remembered before. So we may say, with Strabo and Champollion, “In our time it rained in Upper Egypt.” Rain is, indeed, so rare here, that our guards never remembered to have beheld such a spectacle, and our Turkish Kawass, who is in all respects perfectly acquainted with the country, continued to leave his own things untouched; while we long before had been carrying our chests into the tents, and having them better secured, he quietly repeated _abaden moie_, “never rain,” a word which since then he has often been compelled to hear, as he was thoroughly drenched, and caught a violent, feverish cold, for which he was obliged to wait patiently in Philæ.

The situation of PHILÆ is as charming as it is interesting by its monuments. Some of the most delightful recollections of our journey are associated with our eight days’ residence on this holy island. We used to assemble before dinner, after the scattered work of the day, on the elevated temple terrace, which rises abruptly from the river, on the eastern shore of the island; we there watched the shadow of the temple (which is in good preservation, and built of sharply cut, deep-coloured glowing blocks of sandstone) steal over the river, and mingle with the black volcanic masses of rock, towering above each other, between which the golden yellow sand pours into the valley like streams of fire. The island appears only to have become holy to the Egyptians at a late period, for the first time under the Ptolemies. Herodotus, who during the rule of the Persians ascended as far as the Cataracts, does not mention Philæ at all; it was at that time inhabited by the Ethiopians, who were also in possession of half of the island of Elephantine. The oldest buildings now to be found upon the island were erected on the southern point by Nectanebus, the last king but two of Egyptian origin, almost a hundred years after the journey of Herodotus. There are no traces of earlier remains, not even of any that were destroyed or built up into other buildings. Many older inscriptions are to be found upon the large neighbouring island of Bigeh, named in hieroglyphics SENMUT. As early as the Old Monarchy, it was adorned with Egyptian monuments; for we have found a granite statue of King Sesurtesen III. from the 12th Dynasty. The little rocky island KONOSSO, named in hieroglyphics KENES, also contains very old inscriptions, engraved upon the rock, in which a new and hitherto wholly unknown King of the Hyksos period is also named. Hitherto the hieroglyphic name of the island of Philæ was read Manlak. I have found the name undoubtedly more than once written Ilak; hence with the article, PHILAK became in the mouth of the Greeks PHILAI. The sign which Champollion read “man,” in other groups changes into _i_, thence the expression I-lak, P-i-lak, Memphitic Ph-i-lak, is now established.

We have made a valuable discovery in the court of the great Temple of Isis, of two _bilingual_ decrees of the Egyptian priests, that is to say, drawn up in the Hieroglyphic and Demotic characters; they are tolerably rich in words, and one of them contains the same text as the decree of the Rosetta stone. I have, at least, up to the present moment, compared the last seven lines, which correspond with the inscription of Rosetta, not only in their contents, but also in the length of each single line; the inscription must be copied before I can say more about it; at all events, it is no inconsiderable advantage to Egyptian philology, if only a portion of the fragmentary decree of Rosetta can, through this, be completed. The whole of the first portion of the Rosetta inscription which precedes the decree, is here wanting. Instead of this, there is a second decree beside it, which refers to the same Ptolemy Epiphanes; in the introduction, the “Fortress of Alexander,” _i. e._ the town of Alexandria, is mentioned for the first time, on the monuments which have hitherto become known. Both decrees conclude, like the Rosetta inscription, with the intention to set up the inscription in Hieroglyphic, Demotic, and Greek characters. Nevertheless, the Greek is wanting here; unless, perhaps, it was written down in red, and rubbed out when Ptolemy Lathyrus cut his hieroglyphic inscriptions over the earlier ones.[38]

The hieroglyphic succession of the Ptolemies, which appears here, begins again with Philadelphus; whereas, in the Greek text of the Rosetta inscription, it begins with Soter. Another very remarkable fact is, that Epiphanes is here called, the son of Ptolemy Philopator and _Cleopatra_, while, by the historical accounts, the only wife of Philopator was Arsinoë, and she is besides so named in the Rosetta inscription, and on other monuments. She is also certainly called Cleopatra in one passage of Pliny, but this might have been considered a mistake of the author, or of the manuscript, if a hieroglyphic, and, indeed, an official document did not even now present the same change of names. There are now, therefore, no longer any grounds to place the mission by the Roman Senate of Marcus Atilius, and Marcus Acilius to Egypt, to negotiate a new alliance on account of the Queen Cleopatra, who is mentioned by Livy, under Ptolemy Epiphanes, as is done by Champollion Figeac, instead of under Ptolemy Philopator as other authors relate. We must rather assume now, either that the wife and sister of Philopator bore both names, which, indeed, even then would not quite remove the difficulties; or that the project mentioned by Appian, of a marriage between Philopator and the Syrian Cleopatra, who afterwards became the wife of Epiphanes, was carried into effect after the murder of Arsinoë, though the authors give us no account of it. Here, naturally, I am without the means of making this point perfectly clear.[39]

The multitude of Greek inscriptions in Philæ is incalculable, and it will interest Letronne to hear, that on the base of the second obelisk, which still exists in its original place and position, of which only a portion has travelled with the other obelisk to England, I have found the remains of a Greek inscription, written in red, difficult indeed to decipher, which, perhaps, was at one time also gilt, similar to the two last discovered upon the base in England. I have already written to Letronne, that the hieroglyphic inscriptions of the obelisk, which, together with the Greek one of the base, I myself copied in Dorsetshire, and which I afterwards published in my “Egyptian Atlas,” have nothing to do with the Greek inscription, and were not even set up simultaneously; but it still remains a question, whether the inscription of the second base was not in connexion with that of the first; the correspondence of the three known inscriptions certainly appears exclusively confined to themselves.

The chief temple of the island was dedicated to Isis. She is called by preference “The Lady of Philek.” Osiris was only θεὸς σύνναος, which has its peculiar hieroglyphic expression, and he is only sometimes exceptionally called “Lord of Philek;” on the other hand, he was “Lord of Ph-i-uêb,” _i. e._ Abaton, and Isis, who was there σύνναος, is only exceptionally called “The Lady of Ph-i-uêb.” Even from this, we may infer, that the famous tomb of Osiris, on his own island of Phiuêb, was not upon Philek. Both places were expressly designated by their determinatives as _Islands_. There is, therefore, no question that the Abaton of inscriptions and authors was not a particular place upon the island of Philæ; it was itself an island. Diodorus and Plutarch both say so, in distinct terms, as they place it πρὸς Φιλαις. Diodorus expressly designates the island with the tomb of Osiris, as a peculiar island, which, on account of this tomb, was called ἱερὸν πεδίον, “the sacred plain.” This is a translation of PH-I-UEB, or PH-IH-UEB (for the _h_ is also found in the hieroglyphics), in the Coptic tongue ⲫ-ⲓⲁϩ-ⲟⲩⲏⲃ, PH-IAH-UEB, “the sacred field.” This sacred plain was an _Abaton_, inaccessible except to the priests.

On the 6th of November we left the enchanting island, and began our _Ethiopian_ journey. Even in DEBÔD, the next temple we came to towards the south, in hieroglyphics called _Tabet_ (in Coptic, perhaps, ⲧⲁ ⲁⲃⲏⲧ), we found the sculptures of an Ethiopian king, ARKAMEN the ERGAMENES, of the authors, who reigned at the same time as Ptolemy Philadelphus, and probably was in very friendly relations with Egypt. There is great confusion in the French work on Champollion’s expedition (I have not got Rosellini at hand). Many sheets which belong to Dakkeh are attributed to Debôd, and _vice versâ_: we collected nearly sixty Greek inscriptions in GERTASSI. Letronne, who knew them, through Gau, has perhaps already published them; I am eager to learn what he has made out of γόμοι, whose priests play an important part in these inscriptions, as also out of the new gods, Σρούπτιχις and Πουρσεπμοῦνις.

The Inscriptions of TALMIS offer a new instance how incorrectly the Egyptian names were often comprehended by the Greeks, who name the same god MANDULIS, who in the hieroglyphic language was distinctly called MERULI, and was the local god of Talmis. It is striking that the name of Talmis, which is frequently found in this temple, never appears in the rock-temple of Bet el Ualli, certainly of much older date, which is situated in its immediate neighbourhood. DENDÛR also had a peculiar protecting patron, the god PETISI, who never appears anywhere else, and has also the surname of Peschir Tenthur; Champollion’s sheets are here, also, in wonderful disorder, since the representations and inscriptions are erroneously combined.

The Temples of GERF HUSSÊN and SEBÛA are especially worthy of notice, because Ramses Sesostris, by whom they were built, appears here both as a contemplative divinity and worshipping himself as such, with Phtha and Ammon, the two chief divinities of this temple. In the first, he is even one time called “Ruler of the Gods.”

Champollion has already remarked, with justice, that indeed all the temples of the Ptolemies, and of the Roman emperors in Nubia, were only restorations of former sanctuaries, which, in more ancient times, had been erected by the Pharaohs of the 18th and 19th Dynasties, and had been destroyed by the Persians. Thus also the Temple of PSELCHIS was first built by Tuthmosis III. Besides the scattered fragments of stone belonging to this first building, which, however, was not dedicated to Thoth, as Champollion believes, but to Horus, and thus at a later period altered its destination; we have found others, likewise, of Sethôs I. and Menephthes. It also appears that the axis of the first plan was not parallel with the river, like the later one, but similar to almost all other temples, its entrance was towards the river.

At the Temple of KORTE the entrance door alone is inscribed with hieroglyphics, and those of the worst style. Yet even this small amount was sufficient to inform us that the sanctuary was dedicated to Isis, who is named “The Lady of Kerte.” Here also we discovered some blocks that had been used in later buildings, which had escaped the notice of former travellers; they belonged to an ancient temple, erected by Tuthmosis III., and the foundation walls may still be recognised.

In HIERASYKAMINOS we reaped the last harvest of Greek inscriptions. As far as this place Greek and Roman travellers were protected by the garrison of Pselchis, and by another strong position MEHENDI, which is not given on the maps, but was situated some hours to the south of Hierasykaminos. PRIMIS seems only to have had a temporary garrison after the campaign of Petronius. MEHENDI, whose name, indeed, seems only to designate in Arabic the buildings, the fortress, is the best preserved Roman camp that I have ever seen. It lies upon a tolerably steep eminence, and from that commands the river, and a small valley, which passes upwards from the river, to the south side of the fortress; the caravan road, also, here branches off into the desert, and does not redescend to the river till near Medik. The wall of the town encloses a square, which, towards the east, passes down the hill a short way, and measures 175 paces from north to south, and 125 from east to west. Four corner towers, and four central towers, spring up at regular intervals from the walls; among the last, those lying to the north and south were also the gates, which, for greater security, did not lead straight into the town, but with a bend. The southern gate, and all the southern portion of the fortress, which encompassed about 120 houses, are in excellent preservation. Immediately behind the gate you enter a straight street, sixty-seven paces long, which, with but little interruption, is still completely arched over; several narrow side streets lead off on both sides, and are also, as well as all the houses of that whole portion of the town, covered over with arched roofs, made of Nile bricks. The street leads to a somewhat large open place in the middle of the town, near to which was situated, upon the highest point of the ridge of the rock, the largest, and best built house, doubtless that of the commander, with a semicircular niche at the eastern end. The walls of the town are built out of unhewn stones; the gate alone, which supports a well-constructed Roman arch, is built of sharply-cut square stones, amongst which several built into it, have sculptures of the genuine Egyptian style, although of late date; a proof that before the erection of the fortress, there was an Egyptian or Ethiopian sanctuary, probably a chapel to Isis. We discovered a head of Osiris, and two heads of Isis, in one of which we could still recognise the red-marked proportion square of the third canon.

The last monument that we visited, before our arrival in Korusko, was the Temple of Ammon in WADI SEBÛA (the Lion Valley), so called from the row of Sphinxes, which are now scarcely visible above the sea of sand which has buried nearly the whole temple, as far as it stood out alone. Even the western portion of the temple, hewn in the rock, is filled up high with sand, and we were compelled to summon the whole crew of our boat to open an entrance into this part of it. We here encountered a new and very peculiar combination of divine and human nature, in a group of four divinities. The first of which was called “PHTHA OF RAMSES, in the house of Ammon;” the second, PHTHA, with other customary surnames; the third, RAMSES, in the house of Ammon; the fourth, HATHOR. In another inscription, “AMMON OF RAMSES, in the house of Ammon,” was named. It is difficult to explain this combination.[40]

I was no less astonished to find a posterity of King Ramses-Miamun in the outer court of this Temple of Ammon, consisting of a hundred and sixty-two children, represented with their names and titles, most of which, indeed, were scarcely legible, as they are very much destroyed; others are covered with rubbish, and at present could only be estimated by the distances of the spaces. Hitherto, only twenty-five sons and ten daughters of this great king were known. He did not take the two legitimate wives which appear upon the monuments simultaneously, but the one after the death of the other. To-day we had a visit from the old, blind, but powerful and rich Hassan Kaschef, of Derr, who formerly was independent regent of Lower Nubia; he had no less than sixty-four wives, of whom forty-two still remain; twenty-nine sons and seventeen daughters are still living. He has, probably, never taken the trouble to reckon how many of them he has lost, but by the usual proportion here, he must have had about four times the number of those living, therefore about two hundred children.

KORUSKO is an Arabian place, in the centre of the land of the NUBIANS, or Barâbra (plural of Bérberi), which includes the Nile valley from Assuan to beyond Dongola. They are an intelligent and honest race; peaceful, but of a disposition anything but slavish, with well-formed bodies, and a skin of a light, reddish-brown colour. The occupation of Korusko by the Arabs of the race of the Ababde, who inhabit the whole of the eastern desert from Assuan as far as Abu Hammed, is explained by the important situation of the place, being the commencement of the great caravan road, which leads direct to the province of Berber, and cuts off the great-western curvature of the Nile.

The Arabic tongue—in which we have now learnt, at least to give orders and to ask questions, indeed, also to carry on a little conversation of civilities, or on the news of the day—had become so familiar to our ears in Egypt, that the Nubian language attracted us, even by its novelty. It is divided, as far as I have been hitherto able to learn, into a northern and a southern dialect, which meet near Korusko.[41] The language has a distinct character from the Arabic, even in its first elements in the system of consonants and vowels. It is much more euphonous, as it has hardly any accumulation of consonants, no hard guttural sounds; it has little sibilance, and many simple vowels, differing more distinctly from one another than in the Arabic, and generally parted by a consonant, thus again avoiding an effeminate accumulation of vowels. It has no accordance, either with the Semitic languages or with the Egyptian, in any part of the grammatical forms, or the radical words, much less with our own, and therefore surely belongs to the original African tongue, without any immediate connexion with the present language of the Ethiopian-Egyptian race, although the people may have been often comprehended by the ancients under the name of Ethiopians, and were, perhaps, less strangers to them by descent. They are not a trading people, and therefore can only reckon up to twenty in their own language; they borrow the higher decades from the Arabic language, yet they use a peculiar word for one hundred—_imil_. The grammatical distinction between the genders exists almost solely throughout the language in the personal pronouns when they stand alone; they make a distinction between “he” and “she,” but not between “he gives” and “she gives.” They conjugate more by additional actual flexions, as in our languages, than by alteration of accent, and change of vowel, as in the Semitic. They form the ordinals by the addition of _iti_; the plural, by _îgi_; they do not possess a dual. The connexion of the pronouns with the verb is both prefix and affix, but it is simple and natural; they distinguish between the present and the preterite; they express the future by a particle; they have also a peculiar form for the passive voice. The root of the negation is _m_, usually succeeded by an _n_; perhaps the only agreement more than accidental with the roots of most other languages. Their original wealth of ideas is very limited. They have, indeed, peculiar words for the sun, the moon, and the stars; but they borrow terms from the Arabic for time, year, month, day, and hour; water, sea, and river, are all _essi_; but it is remarkable that they designate the Nile by a particular word—_Tossi_. They have peculiar words for all native animals, tame and wild; Arabic words for everything connected with house-building, and even navigation; it is only the boat they themselves call _kub_, which, most likely, has nothing to do with the Arabic _mérkab_. They have only one word—_béti_ (fenti)—for the date-fruit and the date-tree, which are expressed by different terms in Arabic—_bellah_ and _nachele_. The sycamore-tree they call by an Arabic name: but it is remarkable, that they designate the sont (acacia) tree by the same word as tree generally—_g’ôui_. Spirit, God, slave, the ideas of relationship, the different parts of the body, weapons, the produce of the field, and all that belongs to the preparation of bread, have Nubian names; on the other hand, servant, friend, enemy, temple, to pray, believe, read, is Arabic. It is striking that they have special words for writing, and book; but not for style, ink, paper, letter. They call all the metals by Arabic names, with the exception of iron. They are _rich_, in the Berber tongue; _poor_, in Arabic; and, in fact, they are all rich in their miserable home, which they cling to like the Swiss, and, devoid of wants, they despise the Arabic gold, which they might earn in Egypt, where their services are much sought for, as house watchmen, and in all confidential posts.

We are now waiting for the arrival of the camels, to commence our desert journey. Till we reach Abu Hammed, eight days hence, we shall only once find water fit to drink. We shall travel four days longer on camels, as far as Berber; there, by the arrangement of Achmed Pascha, we shall find boats ready for us. We must go to Kartûm, to supply ourselves again with provisions; if we may believe Linant, to go still higher up as far as Abu Haras, and thence to Mandera, in the eastern desert, will scarcely repay us; but Achmed Pascha has promised to send an officer to Mandera, to test once more the statements of the natives.

I shall send this report, with other letters, by an express messenger to Qeneh.